Positively Puzzled

. 1 There are beasts on some Iowan farms Which have suffered unspeakable harms, Though we might like to eat them, It is wrong to mistreat them, Let's not bust those who sound the alarms. Story: Agriculture Industry Pushes To Make Undercover Filming Of Farm Animal Abuse Illegal 3/15/2011 2 Plastic forks now restored to the scene, Some House members at lunchtime convene, Their crowing erupts, Toasting Styrofoam cups, "Cafeterias aren't meant to be green!" Story: Fight Waged With Forks Is Rejoined in Congress 3/16/2011 3 Were it up to the Haitians to choose, Aristide at the polls could not lose But with some trepidation He returns to his nation With a woeful aversion to coups. Story: Plane carrying Aristide takes off for Haiti from South Africa 3/17/2011 4 On war doctrine presidents vary Some are rash to attack, some are wary, But without full reliance On a robust alliance Things can quickly become very hairy. Story: The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution on Lib...

The following may be attributed to Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office: "It’s Christmas morning at the White House thanks to this vote. The House just wrapped up some expensive gifts for the administration and their buddies at the phone companies. Watching the House fall to scare tactics and political maneuvering is especially infuriating given the way it stood up to pressure from the president on this same issue just months ago. In March we thought the House leadership had finally grown a backbone by rejecting the Senate’s FISA bill. Now we know they will not stand up for the Constitution. "No matter how often the opposition calls this bill a ‘compromise,’ it is not a meaningful compromise, except of our constitutional rights. The bill allows for mass, untargeted and unwarranted surveillance of all communications coming in to and out of the United States. The courts’ role is superficial at best, as the government can conti...

I told myself that my next blog post would be about Maher Arar. You know, that Canadian guy who was changing planes at JFK airport on his way home to Canada , when he was seized by U.S. Officials, and sent to Syria to be tortured and confined for nearly a year. I watched an excerpt of his testimony before Congress last month, courtesy of Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! (quoted below) . So chilling is his story, I felt compelled to talk about it. However, it has been difficult for me to compose my thoughts. Part of it is lazy procrastination, an inability to allocate and manage my time well, sustain focused concentration; an age-old problem for me, and of far too many people in today's society. I also find that every single day there is something new reported in the news that I feel compelled to speak out about. So many astonishing things going on all at once. With my compulsion to respond to each and every thing firing in every direction, I ultimately write about nothing...